


Elf on the Shelf

by CapturetheFinnick



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/F, First Meetings, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 17:58:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16897329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapturetheFinnick/pseuds/CapturetheFinnick
Summary: Nicole has been stood outside all day in the cold, dressed as an elf no less, and all she can think about is getting back inside to some hot coffee and a radiator, that is until she meets Waverly Earp.ORThe one where Nicole is Santa (Nedley's) Elf and Waverly takes Alice to meet Santa





	Elf on the Shelf

**Author's Note:**

> What's this? Am I writing christmas fic instead of focusing on my chapter fic ?? no way....  
> I had this idea and just had to write it (even though i don't feel even remotely christmassy)

Nicole huffed, pulling her hat back down over her ears. She’d been elf-cast again. She’d thought she’d left that behind in Texas, back in her days of volunteering at the local police station, that she’d finally graduated to _actual_ police work, to car chases and hunting criminals and everything she’d dreamed about as a child, her eyes big as saucers as she stared up at the TV. Yet here she was again, dressed in a garishly bright costume. There was a certain kind of irony in an excessively tall elf, she could feel it in the way the kids looked at her, their heads tilting in confusion, a fake smile endlessly plastered on her face. It wasn’t that she didn’t get it, last one in gets the worst costume; she’d seen pictures of Lonnie from the year before, but anybody spending all day in ridiculously oversized elf shoes would be a little grouchy. Or maybe more than a little grouchy. It was cold after all.

It snowed almost all winter out in Purgatory, Nicole had learnt that one fast when her car got stalled in the snow on her way in and Nedley had had to come rescue her (which is _definitely_ top ten ways to introduce yourself to your new boss).

 _You’re moving out into the sticks? In Canada?_ Her friend had said, raising his eyebrows, chugging down his beer. It had been a crazy decision, in hindsight. She’d uprooted her entire life, left everything behind (not that there was much to leave behind) and moved to the middle of nowhere, a city girl in the middle of the big, wide-open sky. But she had a feeling about Purgatory, and even now as the snow was falling heavier, her hands starting to shake a little as she handed out the gifts to the children, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d made the right choice. Purgatory may have been small and distant, but it was beautiful, and friendly (for the most part), the kind of _close-knit community_ she’d longed for as a lonely child.

The queue was starting to die down now, and Nedley looked up at her with an apologetic glance that said _not much longer._

~

The last child in the queue had just sat down on Nedley’s lap, and Nicole could practically feel the warm indoors calling her name, a nice warm coffee and perhaps a chocolate or two. The blast of the heating bringing life back to the tips of her fingers. _She’d earned it._

So, when another person rounded the corner, Nicole could have cursed the very ground she stood on. Or she could have, if said person wasn’t maybe the prettiest person she’d ever seen in her life, her long brown hair falling around her shoulders, tucked under a perfectly white beanie, her cheeks red from the cold. Nicole swore it was a little bit lighter than it had been a monument ago, the sky cracked wide open, light pouring in.

“We’re not too late, are we?” the woman said, and Nicole snapped herself out of her daydream, bringing herself back down to reality. She cast her glance away long enough to notice that the woman had a child with her, a child wearing (of all things) a bright purple octopus costume. Nicole started to wonder if the cold had finally got her brain, sending her loopy. She blinked twice.

“Hello?” the woman said,

“Can we still see Santa?” the child piped up, and Nicole put on her best fake smile,

“Of course,” she looked at where Nedley was still busy with the last child, “won’t be a minute,”

“You new in town?” the woman said,

“Huh?” Nicole said, still having some trouble staying in the moment apparently (this was going really well)

“Are you new in town?” she repeated, with a small laugh, and Nicole swore her whole face lit up,

“Ah yes, the new Sherriff’s deputy,” she said, motioning towards Nedley,

“Ah yes I think Wy did mention that,” Waverly reached out a mittened hand to shake Nicole’s, “I’m Waverly Earp,”

 _Earp._ Why did she recognise that name?

She stuck her hand out to shake Waverly’s, her arm moving awkwardly because of the cold, her cheeks going bright red (and not just because of the chill)

More people rounded the corner.

_Ah that’s why she recognised the name._

Wynonna Earp had been taken in not too many days ago for excessive drinking, and an apparent attempt to scale the town’s Christmas tree (she’d still had a bauble tied around her ear when Nicole had burled her through the front doors of the police station.) She had the same mischievous glint in her eye now,

“Ah red,” she grinned, “decided to stick around then?”

“Earp,” Nicole said, rolling her eyes, “good to see you again,”

“Is it?” she grinned,

“Well you did say some nasty things about me,”

“Meh I didn’t mean all of it,”

“What do you mean all of it?” Nicole widened her eyes and Wynonna only chuckled,

“Got to initiate the fresh blood somehow,”

Nicole rolled her eyes, her (definitely witty) response cut off by the cry of the little girl in the octopus costume who ran straight at Wynonna,

“Mommy!” she cried, attempting to fling her arms around the woman, which was much easier said than done when you were wearing a costume with eight arms (where none of them were especially functional.) Apparently, Wynonna had more layers to her than just the town drunk; she didn’t miss the way her face lit up as she pulled the little girl into her arms.

“Manage to get in trouble already?” Waverly said, rolling her eyes, and shooting an apologetic look at Nicole. She turned to another man who Nicole recognised from around the police station, and from Nedley muttering _what sort of name is Xavier anyway,_ who was always deadly serious, yet whose face had erupted into a giant grin and whose hand was entwined with Wynonna’s, “ _Somebody_ , was supposed to be keeping an eye on her,”

“Hey, I had work,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender, “and I left her with Jeremy,”

“And I was drunk,” the other man (who Nicole assumed was Jeremy) said with a shrug.

“Hope she didn’t do too much damage,” Waverly said,

“Ah just Nedley’s favourite coffee mug,” Nicole said,

“Hey I replaced that!” Wynonna protested,

“It was on sale!” the little girl cried out, to an echo of laughter and Wynonna desperately trying to shush her,

“Kids do say the darnest things,” Wynonna said, rolling her eyes.

Nicole laughed, and noticed the other child leaving the grotto, Nedley giving the sign that he was ready for the next one to come in.

“Come on squirt,” Wynonna said, placing the girl back on the ground,

“My name’s Alice,”

“Whatever you say squirt,” Wynonna grinned as she made her way to the grotto, flanked by Dolls and Jeremy (who gave Waverly a small wink – making her blush – as he walked away)

“That’s gonna make a hell of a picture,” Waverly laughed, turning back towards Nicole,

“Should I even ask about the octopus costume?” Nicole grinned,

“It’s from her school nativity,”

“There was an octopus present at the birth of baby Jesus?”

“You didn’t know?” Waverly grinned, shaking her head, her smile somehow even wider than before (Nicole hadn’t even thought that possible) “You gotta pick your battles you know, if she wants to sit on santa’s lap as an octopus then she’ll get that, she’s ridiculously stubborn,” there was a certain fondness to her voice, “like her mother,”

“Oh, I worked that one out already,” Nicole laughed,

“Again, sorry,”

“It’s fine, nobody was hurt,” she laughed, “I managed to get her down from the Christmas tree just fine,”

“She climbed the Christmas tree?” Waverly shook her head, “Oh god that’s a new one even for her,”

“In fairness she did pretty well, don’t think I could have got that far up and I have nine years rock climbing experience”

“Humble brag,” Waverly smirked,

“Ok, well I didn’t mean it like _that_ ,”

“Suuuure,” Waverly and said and Nicole could only shake her head, the cold suddenly not bothering her quite as much. In fact, she felt positively toasty. The tips of her ears had blushed bright red.

~

 “My ears are burning,” Wynonna interjected, carrying Alice still in her arms, a present now held in her arms, a photo clutched in Dolls’ hands,

“Back so soon?” Waverly said, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice,

“You know how it is, in and out, Mrs Claus must be used to disappointment,”

“Wynonna!”

“What she doesn’t understand,” Wynonna rolled her eyes,

Wynonna looked at Haught and then at Waverly and back again, a small smile spreading its way across her lips, noting the silence between them, she grinned.

“Are you single, Haught,” she blurted out. Apparently, Wynonna Earp didn’t beat around the bush (but she would definitely have a joke to make about _that_ phrasing)

“Wynonna!” Waverly said, practically hiding her face behind her hair.

“What?”

Nicole had blushed bright red.

“Uh, yeah, yeah I am,” she said, deliberately avoiding Waverly’s eyes,

“Well I guess she really is an elf on the shelf,” she whispered to dolls, smirking as he elbowed her in the ribs,

“I can only apologise for her,” he rolled his eyes at Nicole, but she could tell from the way his smile lit up his face, that he wasn’t _really_ sorry, that he loved Wynonna, _really_ loved her.

“Well we’ll be off baby girl,” she said loudly, and Nicole could see Waverly fold in on herself, “see you at the car in ten,” she said with an overly exaggerated wink, practically dragging Jeremy away by the back of his collar.

“I guess there’s only really so many times you can apologise for your sister in one day, huh?” she smiled, her face still bright red.

“Honestly, it’s fine,”

Wynonna was a firecracker, but Nicole could tell from the people she surrounded herself with that she couldn’t do any harm. She could tell from the way the Sheriff’s face softened just a little when he pretended to be annoyed by her; more annoyed parent of a mischievous toddler than Sheriff concerned with criminal activity. Nicole wasn’t sure she’d ever met anyone like Wynonna before. Then again, she wasn’t sure she’d ever met anyone like Waverly either. Thus, she was cursing herself for letting her tongue freeze, just smiling at her, having no idea what to say. _God she must think I’m an idiot._

There was a lull in the conversation, and Nicole moved from foot to foot, the cold startling to settle into her bones.

“You must be freezing,” Waverly said, her eyes filling with concern,

“Yeah sucks to be the rookie,” she laughed, “I guess someone’s gotta do it,”

“Well you’re certainly prettier than the rest of the deputies,” Waverly smiled shyly and the forwardness nearly bowled Nicole over, face first into the snow. She wasn’t used to it. She was used to months of dancing around the issue, of _does she like me, does she like me not?_ Until she drove her friends crazy, and she was _still_ uncertain. Although she supposed when you lived in a small town and your dating options were limited, you had to grab opportunities by the horns, or by the oversized elf hat, as it were. Who knew the elf outfit could work for her?

Waverly smiled directly at Nicole, almost relishing the blush that had spread its way across her cheeks.

“Is that so?” Nicole said, trying (and failing) to keep her cool,

“Uh-huh,” Waverly said, “do you want to grab a hot chocolate after this, I know a place,” she laughed, shaking her head a little, “well there’s only really one place,”

There she was again with the forwardness. There she was again with throwing Nicole for a loop.

“Can I at least get changed first?” Nicole said, gesturing to her elf outfit.

“Do you have to?” Waverly said, pouting.

“You can’t possibly find this attractive” Nicole said, laughing, shaking her head so the bells inside her hat jingled,

“It’s cute,”

Nicole raised her eyebrows,

“Fine, you can get changed,”

“Thank you kindly,”

“Meet you back here in ten?”

And Nicole could already tell that Waverly was going to be big for her, from the way she smiled, the way she blushed and laughed, the way she struggled to turn around and walk away from her, and the way she no longer felt cold, a small light glowing in her chest.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know how I feel about how it turned out but it is what it is now I guess. The octopus costume may or may not be a nod to a certain christmas film that may or may not be the BEST christmas film of all time. Also I love and miss Wyndolls so will indulge myself whenever I possible can lol. I don't really know if some kind of monster will be up on sunday my guess is probably not bc i'm the worst.  
> Hope you had a good day, and thanks for reading!  
> My twitter is waverlysangel and my tumblr is waverlysangels


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